Legally Speaking

In conversation with UC Hastings Professor Joan C. Williams.

UC Hastings Professor Joan Williams welcomes U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for a conversation that touches on a broad range of subjects, from opera to marriage to work/life balance, doctrinal questions, and cases from the 1970's to present, including the court's role in establishing individual rights and equal protection.

School Spirit

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Engaged Scholarship

After 138 years of teaching law and producing first-class legal scholarship, we began to wonder if perhaps we are just a little too focused. Maybe we should look a little more like other institutions...

Nine clinics honored 15 students for outstanding performance. A dozen students (out of 39 students nominated by their peers, faculty, and community members) were honored with Community Public Interest Awards. Five graduating students received the inaugural Nancy Stuart Public Interest Award, to recognize their exemplary commitment to closing the access to justice gap for marginalized communities, exceptional contributions to the public interest community at UC Hastings, and their professors’ confidence that they will be courageous and effective advocates for social justice.

Malea L. Chavez ’03, Deputy Director of the Homeless Prenatal Program, kicked off the event by delivering the keynote speech. She reflected upon her own pubic interest work at UC Hastings, which included founding the UC Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, before the honorees received their awards.

This year’s recipients have shown leadership through organizing social justice or public interest campus events, creating innovative social justice projects, or showing consistent representation for a voice of conscience in student organization meetings.

Jordyn Bishop ’17 and Angelo Sandoval ’17 received Community Public Interest Awards for reinvigorating the Native American Law Students Association and working in solidarity with other student groups and their fellow Social Justice Lawyering concentrators to press for a more supportive environment for students of color and social-justice-minded students.

Rising 3L Elizabeth Lincoln was honored with a Community Public Interest Award for dedicating herself to Legal Services for Children and traveling hours each week to meet with children in detention to listen to their personal, often horrific, stories, while preparing their legal cases.

All of the inspiring and selfless awardees have worked tirelessly on nights and weekends, sacrificed breaks, and/or demonstrated strong leadership as part of their dedication to public interest service.

Experiential Learning at UC Hastings

At UC Hastings, we believe legal education should be an active, engaging process that prepares students for real world law practice. Every day, our renowned clinical programs fuse the powers of innovative classroom and experiential learning opportunities with our unique location and relationships in San Francisco to educate and inspire the country’s future lawyers, legislators, mediators, judges, and partners in business. For more information, click here.

Nancy Stuart Public Interest Fund

The Nancy Stuart Public Interest Fund is established to continue the work of UC Hastings alumna and former Associate Dean Nancy Stuart, in advancing social justice work within the UC Hastings community and supporting students committed to closing the access to justice gap for marginalized communities. The fund provides scholarships to rising 2L and 3L UC Hastings students with a demonstrated record of public interest and social justice commitment. In addition to academic scholarships, the fund will also provide grants to graduating students to reduce financial burdens while studying for the Bar Exam. Scholarships and grants will be awarded to students based on a variety of considerations including the student's record of public interest work, financial need, professional pursuits, and contributions to social justice efforts at UC Hastings. To support the Nancy Stuart Public Interest fund, click here.

Polyamorous Marriages -- Prof. Feldman has Amazon’s #1 New Release in Health Law -- 2017 Trial Lawyer of the Year -- Cleaning up the Tenderloin -- The Democratic Party’s Billion-Dollar Mistake -- War Games Threatcasting -- Prof. Williams’ book on Mark Cuban’s summer reading list -- and much more

University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco is redefining legal education through our experiential, interdisciplinary, and international approach to the law. We integrate rigorous academics with hands-on practice, preparing our graduates to tackle the legal challenges—and leverage the opportunities—of the 21st century.